Our leader, “cwlarson”, joined the masses in selecting Mark Teixeira to
extend his streak, along with 10.1 percent of the BTS Nation with him.

“cwlarson” is now riding a 34-game streak, and if he/she survives the
weekend, I’ll e-mail a questionnaire so I can feature “cwlarson” in the
BTS Report and watch the streak evaporate into the abyss so we can learn more about our leader. \

My condolences to the “hit dragon” mustve drank too much water and extinguished what fire was left in his belly.
Going with matt holliday and Rays to go to 3 in both.
Will hopefully post the top 2500 by 4-430est. I’m at work today but will get the stats to include the early game. GL to all tonight.
M

Teixeira went 3 for 5 yesterday and the Yankees won so my streaks are now at 5.
My picks for today;
Beat the Streak: Ian Kinsler
Survivor: Yankees
Home run: A-Rod

Highest no selections;
Beat the Streak: 2 way tie “gvporterbase” (page 8) and “mantequillas88” (page 9) with hit streaks of 17.
Survivor: 2 way tie “bpoolguy1” (page 1) and “wpokladek” (page 2) with win streaks of 11.
Home run: 2 way tie “elysianp1,giunta13” (page 1) with home run streaks of 3.
All of them are returning to 0.

Put his advice in your piggy bank and cash it in on Wed. 7/28
Don’t go against Randy Wells of Cubs. He is back on track and pitching very well. Made the Cards look like the O’s today at Wrigley Field. He struck out Lopez in his first 3 at bats.
Saturday at Wrigley Field the wind will be blowing modestly toward right field. Tyler Colvin of Cubs looks good in HR BTS. Gorzelany of Cubs has been hot, I would move to another game and stay away from cold Cards.

I like RIP2’s pick of JHamil. Whatever problem Saunders has problem with LHB this year and JH can rip @ Tex so that should be enough. I also like EA @ top of the line-up too. Other TX hitters outside of Kinsler seem iffy.

Jeter was a bad pick. Simple as that. He does NOT hit righties this year. His “Jeterian” swing that Susan Waldman loved praise last year is completely broken this year. The Captain still kilss lefties though. Surprise to see the leader came up this far with picks like that. He was a lemming picker anyway. He basically got like a slew of times.

Was at the Yankee game tonight. The thunderstorm was a pretty good show. Great game, though I was disappointed A-rod didn’t hit #600. I had Swisher for both a hit and hr and he was pulled before the game. My luck.. oh well.

I have a pick today that will shake all heads today. I chose Pennington of the A’s. Number nine hitter and A’s are home today. Facing Garcia and Garcia isn’t the greatest. Pennington hits better during the day anyway so I like the pick. That is way outside the box.

I’m at 6 in beat the streak and survivor.
My picks;
Beat the Streak and Home run: A-Rod
Survivor: Yankees
Highest no selections;
Beat the streak: “wicked223” (page 2) streak of 23
Survivor: “schreckie” (page 2) streak of 11
Home run: 4 way tie “tsmelski,Cubs2win, rlbard,jerechter” (pages 5-7) streak of 2
They are being welcomed back to 0.

@btsplayer: You asked for a reason, I gave you one. If you don’t want an answer, don’t ask the question. Been noticing your posts for past couple weeks. How about trying to justify picks before the outcome is certain. Postgame armchair analysts are a dime a dozen and worth even less. Your posted analyses are about as useless as swim fins for a cat.

So now that the 2 early games are done we already have a 32% reset of the top2500. Damn.
@vinny
Picking Loney against Pelfrey probly b/c of Pelfrey’s atrocious last outing and hoping for more of the same, but leader did avoid the Cano 0-fer.

@btsplayer: Aw, did I hurt you wittle feelings… During these past several weeks I’ve been skimming the blogs, regarding your childish name calling and negative comments towards others… Maybe your bitterness from losing drives that dribble? Being an ill-mannered blog-bully-wanna-be takes no courage, intelligence, or forethought; actually the opposite. I’ll probably hover near the bottom this year, much like you, though I had 1 good run. Enjoy stewing in your self-pitty in the off-season. But don’t hold back if you want to thrash me, wouldn’t expect anything less. Sticks & Stones bro. Hoping to get to the top & reading your Jerry Springer guest-like comments when I do

Day v. Night Stats are now skewed, from my perspective, as “night” games now begin in the day time. Most guys get 2 at bats before it gets to “night.”
Yankees? – Sergio Mitre starts today? Mitre was a bum 6 – 8 years ago when he was with the Cubs. Injuries to NYY staff, but talk about a desperation starter. I know the game was v. Royals but wow.
Again, please make posts that will help bloggers BEFORE the game closes each day. I’ve been making posts on weather conditions/wind conditions at Wrigley Field to help bloggers. Encouraging others to do the same.
Sunday – Cubs are now hot but I say stay away for Sunday as they face Cards and Carpenter tomorrow “Night” at Wrigley Field.

@vinny1979. Glad some are in agreement. I can understand people posting how glad they are when the leaderboard takes hits, when picks seem oddly wrong, constructive cirticism, clever irony, etc. But calling people names for what appears as the only reason is that they are doing better than others…. a trait of a sore loser. There are mature & polite ways of getting one’s jab in without dropping to such a low level, I think most would agree.

I mentioned a few nights ago how hot Gordon Beckham and Omar Vizquel have been for the White Sox and it seems to be continuing. Beckham has hits in 11 out of his last 12 games (6 multi-hit games) including today. Also Vizquel (after an 0-fer today in a blowout by the A’s) just finished a 9-game hitting streak with 7 multi-hit games. Always good to keep an eye on the under-the-radar picks.

Well my way outside of the box pick Pennington came through in his first AB and LIber sometimes you have to make picks like that to even have a shot at winning this. Popular picks get you nowhere as we all see. Cano killed another chunk of the leader board and is the big killer for today. On to tomorrow for me with my streak starting again.

I mentioned a few nights ago how hot Gordon Beckham and Omar Vizquel have been for the White Sox and it seems to be continuing. Beckham has hits in 11 out of his last 12 games (6 multi-hit games) including today. Also Vizquel (after an 0-fer today in a blowout by the A’s) just finished a 9-game hitting streak with 7 multi-hit games. Always good to keep an eye on the under-the-radar picks.

As for today, I picked Furcal and am glad to say he came through against the ailing Pelfrey. 🙂 As for tomorrow, I really like Michael Young. He looks like he’s really heating up, and barring a bad game tonight looks to be my pick. He doesn’t hit righties as well as lefties, but when you’re hitting well it doesn’t matter who you face.
.272 vs. Righties, .317 at home, .324 at night. Good enough for me until I question myself and switch my pick at midnight. 😉

Magglio Ordonez fractures ankle- out 6 to 8 weeks.
If that big rain storm that hit Chicago on Friday night and now appears to be in Pittsburg, hits the east coast on Sunday, games could be in jeopardy. Chicago area got 7 inches of rain overnight Friday night into Saturday morning.

I forgot to check to see how Mauer has done for me throughout the season. I’m pretty sure this exact thing happened earlier this season, everyone in the Twins lineup but Mauer had a hit. Oh well, back on the horse tomorrow, still time to get to 57.

@rip2thecompetition: Always check how the hitter is doing current month. I checked that yesterday and saw that Mauer is not hitting LHP this month at all. If you check the whole year stats, they don’t tell you that.

Who would win the following fights: A grizzly bear vs. a tiger; a gorilla vs. three Vikings from circa 1250 a.d.; an entire junior high basketball team vs. the 1988 version of Mike Tyson; Marge Schott vs. Eleanor Roosevelt; and btsplayer vs. ponyforkeana?

Today is tough picking. Tomorrow is even worst. Usually Ichiro was there last year to save the day like this but no. Thinking Pujols as he hasn’t hit in 3 days but it seems Pinella is not giving him anything to hit. I remember Pinealla said something about its important to not get beat by Pujols when playing St. Louis.

“Today is tough picking. Tomorrow is even worst. Usually Ichiro was there last year to save the day like this but no. Thinking Pujols as he hasn’t hit in 3 days but it seems Pinella is not giving him anything to hit. I remember Pinealla said something about its important to not get beat by Pujols when playing St. Louis.”

O-Dawg out of line up and headed to DL (rotoworld). With top 3 starters out for MIN, one would think BAL has great chance to win throwing a pitcher MIN hasn’t seen before. Willing to bet your Survivor streak on it? Also, D.Young will probably be batted 2nd/3rd today with Kubel/Cuddyer for protection & could be a nice pick of circumstance. Thinking…

Then again, just saw KC lineup. NYY appears to be great Survivor pick & maybe many of the NYY batters for BTS with a potential blowout in the making? But teams don’t seem to deal well vs rookie pitchers. Will have to see if leaderboard agrees or not.

I would of avoided all Yanks and Rangers as they are facing rookie pitchers and the pitcher always seems to get the better of the team in that situation. Bell is replacing Kazmir for the Angels and this is the second time O’Sullivan is facing the Yanks in 5 days and last time he beat them.

Probably had the pick locked in on Friday. They didn’t start issueing the DH warning until late Friday after the game got canceled. But I think he has greater chance of advancing that #1 & #2. Both picks don’t seem like sure bets. MCab knows he can’t relax now because he has lot to carry on his bat.

I went
BTS: Swisher
Survivor: Yankees
they faced O’Sullivan earlier this week so they know what he looks like and it is advantage as they saw him earlier this week so it wasn’t even that long of a time ago of course it could go the other way but that was my reasoning

It’s funny that Dave didn’t make a selection today. I find that ironic but I guess he thought he did on Friday. No way that many people locked in on Miggy on Friday. They must of forgot that they need hits in both games in order for their streak to advance one game.

“No way that many people locked in on Miggy on Friday. They must of forgot that they need hits in both games in order for their streak to advance one game.”

But they give you warning if you picked after the DH set in just like last year. I checked last night out of curiosity.

More and more I think about it, this game is pure luck. Some come up this far picking days ahead. Sure, its probably not a sound strategy but we only see the ones who lucked out on the leader’s board. Then again, it is a sound strategy. Day to day analyses got me to 9 this year.

Unlike some of us (me included), I bet a lot of people just pick ahead after digesting lunch @ work. More likely on Fridays. Alternate theory is the DH warning is not in a plain English and many just ignore it and click on.

“More and more I think about it, this game is pure luck. Some come up this far picking days ahead. Sure, its probably not a sound strategy but we only see the ones who lucked out on the leader’s board. Then again, it is a sound strategy. Day to day analyses got me to 9 this year.”

Not true.

The more you know, the better you do.

It just requires to know such an enormous amount of info that you sometimes “luck out” by advancing with a lousy pick, because you overlooked better picks.

“Pure luck” means the hits would be evenly distributed across all angles.

@champion88: What I meant by “pure luck” is analyses will only get you so far. You can only control so much by picking well. Besides the obvious incidents like Crawford’s ball injury, there are too many things beyound control to put up a meaning ful streak. There are so many variable that you cannot fathom or process because human elements. Those on the leader’s board seem like geniuses but most of them just picked the same group of hitters as most of us. Some will dodge the 20% wipeout everyday but I am no longer convinced its because they are necessarily making better picks. Just by chance, some will dodge the bullet everyday and survive to look like they’re making great picks.

I think that is what makes this game so addicting. Its worst than gambling and even stock market because they give you the illusion of great control.

Here is what I mean. I think AGonz, Longoria, E. Aybar, & M. Young all seem like on par with each other for a hit. I don’t think I can say one pick is signficantly better than the others. They’re picked for a different reasons but they seem like decents picks but not sure bets. What happens when the game starts is beyond control. I think there are too many things that can happen after the game starts that you couldn’t have predicted prior it. To me those elements that are unknown but goes your way has to be attributed to luck.

I think the leader is the last man standing this year. Yesterday’s Cano 0-fer significantly increased the chance of the inusurance company keeping the premium paid by MLB. If he goes down, I think that is it. At least he is making interesting picks.

damn Swish 0 for 2 due up 2nd but the rain looks like its coming in a hurry and they won’t make up the game tomorrow as its the end of the series at least its a day game and they can wait it out longer than usual but if that happens I don’t have a good feeling about streak continuing. It’s getting close to the cutoff I would say early August for the 3 mill and mid August for the ten thous

1 hit… 1 hit in 7 innings off of Wandy Rodriguez. This is the same pitcher that the Reds beat up with 8 hits and 8 runs in 3 1/3 innings back on 5/28. 2 home runs were hit off hims as well. Today the Reds have 1 lousy hit as a team. The year of the pitcher is horrible for beat the streak.

My pick for AGzonz today was sealed by his tenacity to kill during the day time. I found day & night split diverision in certain hitters to be the most reliable. Think about it, unlike lefty or right pitchers, this is a constant. There is better day or better night. Next I found home & away split to be very helpful but only when it revolves home as stadiums vary when away.

Denard Span kills @ home. Same last year too. I thought it would change when they got the new stadium but no. I just don’t understand why he can’t hit on the road.

Maybe another less talked about bts curse? Why is it so difficult to get 14+ gamers within a short timeframe between them? Does luck just turn against you so brutally — give you a glimmer of hope, then laugh in your face for the next month after your streak ends? Or is it just the bts-way: one to three good streaks per season? Gotta keep truckin’ along though as time is critical but still available.

“Why is it so difficult to get 14+ gamers within a short timeframe between them?” That is what I meant by luck. Luck plays bigger role than we give credit for. It would highly unlikely to give one person constant luck month after month. Some will get it but probability will say not many. That is why you never see any of the leaders ever come back up again.

I only recall like 2 or 3 guys this who went above 25+ twice. One guy I think if you put 2 streak together, he would had 56.

“1 hit… 1 hit in 7 innings off of Wandy Rodriguez. This is the same pitcher that the Reds beat up with 8 hits and 8 runs in 3 1/3 innings back on 5/28. 2 home runs were hit off hims as well. Today the Reds have 1 lousy hit as a team. The year of the pitcher is horrible for beat the streak.”

“Well, you have 25 slots for the front page everyday * 180 days or so of picking = 4,500 slots per season.

If 1% of those slots repeated, I know I would not notice.”

When you got to the leader’s board, you will longest & current. Longest is the default. You can see what the current streak of past leaders are doing. I check to see what the old masters have picked. There was a guy who put together a couple high 20s this year. I remember he did the same last year. I would love hear this guys’ strategy. For now:
JohnWillson
30 20
Alex Rodriguez

“Well Prado due up in 11th for 6th AB. I, like 82 top2500s, are hoping.”

You have to watch out for Prada Bag when he is not playing @ home. He is very tempting to pick because of his avg and #1 spot but he isn’t as reliable when he is on the road. He burned me like twice this year on the road.

“”Well Prado due up in 11th for 6th AB. I, like 82 top2500s, are hoping.”You have to watch out for Prada Bag when he is not playing @ home. He is very tempting to pick because of his avg and #1 spot but he isn’t as reliable when he is on the road. He burned me like twice this year on the road.”

Ill take my one hit and move onto tomorrow.

There was another name up on top of leader board from ealier this year that has been there twice, “Khourybean”(sp?) He had a 30 and then got back to like 25 or 26.

@bmoccabee@yahoo.com: I was grocery shopping when I went in it was end of the 7th. When I got out the Walbaums, bases were loaded & Jeter got hit. They mentioned a pinch runner @ third replacing Swish. I was hoping it was a hit over a walk. Wow. you must be thrilled!

yea man Im thrilled. I was watching it live and I saw him hit it I thought the 2B was ganna make a nice catch but it went over his head. Pumped right now. Right now for tomorow I have Cano locked in but didn’t look yet just put him in case I forget to pick by the deadline.
GL to everybody to who picked any of the Rangers or Cards.

How about that Buster Posey? Why did SF wait so long to bring him up. He is doing this out of a clean-up spot. I wonder how long he can keep this up. I mean there is being hot. Then super hot like JHaimil was 6 weeks. But BP is Super Hot with extra shot of Tequila.

I got to find a new apporach somewhere because how do I keep missing the long & easy rides like JH & BP.

Buster is a volcano right now. Im afraid to pick him though cuz he is a rookie and everybody knows you can’t trust rookies, I have only picked rookies 2 times and they were both Heyward and he didn’t get a hit in either.

The journey to 57 games in a very long road. You may need to make a stop or two along the way. Read on:
Yesterday, I saw that Ordonez broke his ankle and immediatley posted on the blog about him being out 6 -weeks. I then went went to the BTS page and picked him for the every one of the next 10 games that Tigers were playing. Really does not affect me because of my lowly streaks. But, someone with a long streak my not see anything on a specific day and use the “Orodonez” as a pass to the next day. Nothing illegal about this, simply taking advantage of information that you have. I checked the Tigers roster on BTS on Sunday morning and poof – guess what Ordonez’s name not listed! Did he get put on the DL that fast or did MLB take his name off to prevent players from using Ordonez as a pass? This is part of the game that you need to take advantage of – same a a coach who can sits in the dugout and steal the other teams signs.
It’s called smart baseball.

Yup. Colvin is on fire. So is his freind Castro. Even Aramis is hitting well. Finally the Cubs hitters are doing something. I think I overly criticized Aarmais before. He may really have been not hitting well because of his injured thumb. He has been back to himself since resting it while back. Soriano is another story.

Yup. Colvin is on fire. So is his freind Castro. Even Aramis is hitting well. Finally the Cubs hitters are doing something. I think I overly criticized Aarmais before. He may really have been not hitting well because of his injured thumb. He has been back to himself since resting it while back. Soriano is another story.

How about our BTS friend from Japan. He is amazingly sinking lower each day. I know he has been facing tough pitching and will do for next 2 to 3 days too but my faith in Ichiro is almost lost at this point.

So I did not know about the Double Header until picks were already locked.
I picked Escobar and he actually got a hit in both games.
Too bad that Marlon Byrd broke my 8 game hitting streak week on Friday bec. then I’d be at a 11 game hit streak. 😦

Cubs legend #B and Radio color man Ron Santo told this story:
The Cubs were excited the day they faced Sandy Koufax because they had figured out that he was tipping off his pitches when pitching with men on base (from the stretch).
They felt they could use this and beat the Dodgers that day.
So guess what happens? Koufax tossed a perfect game. Not one man got on base and Koufax never pitched from the stretch in that game.:) True story – LOL – only could happen to the Cubs.
Tyler Colvin in on fire – I like him to get a hit on Monday v. Astros in Houston.

Cubs legend 3B and Radio color man Ron Santo told this story:
The Cubs were excited the day they faced Sandy Koufax because they had figured out that he was tipping off his pitches when pitching with men on base (from the stretch).
They felt they could use this and beat the Dodgers that day.
So guess what happens? Koufax tossed a perfect game. Not one man got on base and Koufax never pitched from the stretch in that game.:) True story – LOL – only could happen to the Cubs.
Tyler Colvin in on fire – I like him to get a hit on Monday v. Astros in Houston.

I’m really disappointed in myself today. I got 0 ferd by Jonny Gomes and deserved it. I when I could have had Joey Votto, Josh Hamilton (or any of the other big hitters on Texas), or any of the 4 top picks on my Yankees (Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Teixeira).

@bts Getting back to u…I don’t know how Mauer is hitting lefties in July but for the season I know he was hitting around .260, that’s including starters & relievers…there’s actually a stat that gives u a player’s average vs just the left-handed starters he’s faced & Mauer was hitting .306.

Going with a less picked player in Jeff Keppinger tomorrow. He’s doing pretty well lately and has hit the Cubs in all 9 games he’s faced them in this year. Oddly enough, always with the pattern of: one hit the first day, one hit the second day, and two hits the third day in each of the three series this year. Little fin fact there. Hah.

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